December 01, 2025
A row has erupted online after Dr. Shola Mos-Shogbamimu blasted the Home Secretary over the shocking decision to deny a visa to an 8‑year‑old child left destitute in Jamaica after Hurricane Melissa.
In a story initially repoted by The Guardian Lati-Yana Brown, who survived the devastation of Hurricane Melissa, was refused entry to join her parents in the UK despite them paying the £4,000 application fee months before the hurricane struck. The Home Office claimed it had not been “demonstrated” that her grandmother could no longer care for her, dismissing pleas from her parents who live and work in Britain.
Dr. Shola accused the government of racialised immigration policies, calling Shabana Mahmood, a “tokenised Brown Muslim mouthpiece” for Keir Starmer's racialised immigration policies.
If she was White or White Jewish child she won’t be denied. Hey Shabana Mahmood how dare your @ukhomeoffice deny 8yr old Lati-Yana Stephanie Brown, who survived Hurricane Melissa, visa to join her parents in UK?? What is wrong with you evil ghouls? @TheCanaryUK. pic.twitter.com/QawqXKaL7N
— Dr Shola Mos-Shogbamimu (@SholaMos1) December 1, 2025
Section 55 of the Borders and Citizensip Act 2009 places a legal duty on the Home Office to give primary consideration for the best interest of the child in its immigration functions, this incudes decisding on applications. "How is it not in the best interests to now be with her with her parents?" Dr. Shola demanded. "Explain it to us!" she exclaimed.
Her furious intervention has lit up social media, with many echoing her charge that if Lati-Yana were a white child, her case would have been treated differently. Critics say the refusal exposes the hypocrisy not only of a system that claims to put children’s welfare at its core, while in practice denying Black families basic humanity, but also of a Home Secretary who contradicts he own beleifs.
Following the Windrush Scandal in 2018, Shabana Mahmood complained in Parliament of her own constituents with African or Asian origin names being denied visas for their families despite being British citizens. The Home Secretary vehemently described then, what she termed as a culture of disbelief inside the Home Office, a cruel hostile environment machine which she herself now presides over.
BACK TO THE FUTURE
— Jam Radio UK News (@Jam_RadioUK) November 17, 2025
Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood meets her 2018 self, back when she delivered a damning speech in Parliament against the Tories Hostile Environment#Asylum #immigration #PoliticsLive pic.twitter.com/KgPvFDf4BS
The UK imposed Visa restrictions on Jamaica back 2003 after what was then deemed necessary to crub criminal activity. Jamaica and Trinidad remain the only two English speaking former British colonies requiring visas to enter the UK. But critis argue this blanket policy remains harsh on Children and Elderly twenty-two after it was implemented. Guyana's Visas restriction was recently lifted after UK companies secrure oil contracts there.
For Lati-Yana’s parents, the fight is not about politics but survival. They insist their daughter will not be a burden on the state, as both parents are gainfully employed and pay taxes, they simply want her safe, loved, and reunited with them after what has been describes as the most poweful hurricane ever recorded in the region.
JamRadio will continue to follow this story as pressure mounts on the Home Office to reverse its decision.
